At Thanksgiving, Jeffrey Puskey thankful for Mr. Kitty's safety, help of others following Agawam Meadow House apartments fire

The Republican / David RobackJeffrey Puskey and his cat Mr. Kitty escaped the Sunday morning fire in Agawam that displaced more than three dozen tenants. At right is Kathleen St. Germain, of Agawam, Puskey's girlfriend.

AGAWAM - Jeffrey S. Puskey is thankful for a number of things this Thanksgiving Day, not the least of which is the safety of his cat, Mr. Kitty, which escaped injury in a devastating fire that destroyed much of his apartment complex early Sunday.

The 43-year-old Puskey, one of more than three dozen tenants displaced in the Meadow House apartments fire, said he also is thankful for his girlfriend, Kathleen St. Germain, who has taken him into her North West Street home in the wake of the fire.

“I am going to have Thanksgiving over there with my girlfriend,” Puskey said Tuesday morning, shortly after he and St. Germain removed some of his belongings from his former home, rendered unlivable by the blaze.

Puskey counts himself as one of the luckier victims of the fire because unlike some of the other tenants, his apartment suffered only smoke damage. Some of the tenants lost everything they owned.

“I thought it would be much worse,” Puskey said. “In the next apartment over the ceiling is all ripped down.”

All are fortunate in some sense, however, because no injuries were reported in the fast-moving blaze that gutted a section of the complex.

Puskey said he was awakened by an urgent knocking on his door shortly after the fire was reported about 3:30 a.m.

Puskey said he grabbed Mr. Kitty, his asthma inhaler and cell phone and went outside.

The fire, which started in the rear kitchen area of Apartment 1, spread rapidly.

“It took off like there was no tomorrow,” Puskey said.

Agawam Fire Inspector Scott Mitchell said that he was thankful that no injuries were reported in the blaze.

“I am happy and relieved,” Mitchell said, adding that the fire spread rapidly because the building was built in 1964, well before building codes required compartmental fire walls to contain heat and flames.

“I just believe that God had his hand in this,” said St. Germain. “Nobody was hurt and all the animals that were there, they all got out.”

St. German, a semi-retired nurse, said she loaded up her car with blankets after Puskey’s early morning phone call alerted her to the blaze. She couldn’t, however, get close enough to the complex to distribute them to those displaced.

Investigators have yet to determine the cause of the blaze, but Mitchell said it is not considered suspicious.

Puskey said the Pioneer Valley Chapter of the American Red Cross and Paul E. Abramson, one of the property owners, are also high on his list for receiving thanks.

“He has been wonderful,” Puskey said of Abramson, who has worked to find apartments for Puskey and some of the other tenants at other properties that he owns in the Greater Springfield area.

Puskey, who is disabled due to a back injury that he suffered in a car accident, said he and Mr. Kitty will be able to move into their new West Springfield apartment next month.

Meanwhile, they will stay with St. Germain. “I have five dogs, so it’s been a transition, let me tell you,” she said.

Paige Thayer, spokeswoman for the Pioneer Valley Chapter of the American Red Cross, said Abramson has already found apartments for 15 of the displaced tenants.

“As I understand it he has really been on top of this, which is great,” Thayer said.

St. Germain said Abramson called Puskey on his cell phone the next day. “He is a nice man and he is really accommodating,” she said.